Joe Paterno turned 85 on Wednesday. At the risk of being insensitive, I’d like to wish him a happy birthday.

If not a happy one, may he at least find a few moments of relief as he looks back on his 84th year. In the past two months, Paterno was diagnosed with lung cancer, broke his pelvis and had his life’s work shattered.

All that pales when compared to the anguish experienced by Jerry Sandusky’s alleged victims. I’m not suggesting you should break out a violin for Paterno as he stares at all those candles.

I just can’t help feeling sad for the old guy. Especially if he’s finally realizing the damage he helped cause.

That puts Paterno’s self-destruction in a uniquely tragic category. Actually, there are three things that make it the greatest fall from grace in sports history.

The first is that Paterno had so far to tumble. As popular as Tiger Woods or Michael Vick or Pete Rose were, nobody considered them moral beacons.

They also could still redeem themselves. Woods is back to winning and getting endorsements. Vick has rehabbed his reputation about as well as a convicted dog-killer can.

Nobody is going to hire an 85-year-old in a wheelchair to coach again.

The other fallen idols were guilty of sins of commission. Despite his claims, nobody believes Barry Bonds didn’t know what his trainer was up to. Despite the glove not fitting, nobody believes O.J. Simpson should have been acquitted.

Good Lord, who’d have dreamed a year ago we’d ever be comparing JoePa to O.J.?

Paterno’s were sins of omission. He didn’t worry about getting caught because he didn’t realize he’d done anything wrong.

That cluelessness in no way exonerates him. It does explain why his head was spinning that unbelievable week in November.

The Sandusky story broke on a Saturday. By Wednesday, the institution Paterno put on the map fired him without a hearing.

“That’s what I get for 61 years of hard work?” he must have wondered.

The Paterno brand name had been in the Lombardi and Wooden category. In a blink, he became sports’ version of a war criminal who needed to be brought to justice.

I think he deserved the ax. The implicating statements were sworn testimony, not innuendo. I just can’t help thinking that if Paterno had really understood the harm he was ignoring, he’d have done more than shuffle responsibility up the chain of command.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he is the cynical, conniving false idol who would sacrifice children to protect his football factory.

There’s just so much evidence that he was at least partially the Paterno everyone thought he was. The guy who thousands of men say cared more about them as a person than a player.

We’d all love to hear Paterno’s explain why he didn’t raise holy hell when he found out about Sandusky’s shower practices. The best I can come up with is Paterno simply reacted like so many before him.

They heard about child sexual abuse and went brain dead. We’ve seen it in the Catholic Church, the Canadian youth hockey scandal and as recently as this week with the allegations against former Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin.

People turn away, rationalize, threaten and bargain with the alleged perpetrators. And they aren’t all bad people out to protect the system. They just do the most inexplicably irresponsible things when faced with the taboo topic.

Times are changing, but let’s face it. In many ways time long ago passed Paterno by.

Again, that in no way excuses his inaction. I don’t blame you for not joining in a “Happy Birthday” chorus. I understand if you hope every remaining second of Paterno’s life is miserable.

I just think that despite the bad hearing, the radiation treatments and the broken body, Paterno is not too old or callous to learn. The obvious lesson from his 84th year is how he didn’t do enough to stop an alleged sexual predator.

Thus we had the greatest tumble in sports history. The legend of JoePa has fallen and it can’t get up.

Paterno no doubt wishes it could. But as he takes a deep breath and tries to blow out the candles, I suspect what he wants even more is to make amends to the real victims of the Sandusky scandal.